Concerning the True Catholic Church,Her Doctrine, Ministry, and Government;andThe True Marks of the Church of God.

OR,

AN ANSWER TOA LETTER OF A IESVIT NA-med Tyrie, be Iohne Knox.

ĥ PROV. XXVI.

Answer not a foole
according to his foolishenes, least thow be lyke him: answer a foole according
to his foolishness least he be wise in his owen conseat

T H
E contrarietie appearing at the first
sight, betuix thir twa sentencis,
stayit for a tyme, baith heart to meditate &
hand to wryte any thing, con- trair that blaspheamous letter.
But when with bet- ter mynd, God gave me
to considder, that whoso- euer opponis not him self
bouldly to blasphemy & manifest leis, differis lytill
fra tratouris: cloking & fostering, so far as in
them ly, the treasoun of tra-

I M P R E N T I T AT S A N C T
A N-drois be Robert Lekpreuik. Anno. Do. 1572.

JOHNE
KNOX, the servant of Jesus Christ,
now weary of the world, and daily looking for the resolution of this my
earthly Tabernacle, to the Faithful, that God of his mercy shall appoint
to fight after me, desires grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Spirit of sanctification, to resist
all kind of impiety, in these last and most wicked days, wherein Satan
rages, knowing that he has a short time to trouble Gods people.

Wonder not, gentle Reader, that such an argument should proceed
from me in these dolorous days, after that I have taken goodnight at the
world, and at all the trouble of the same, except to lament for my own
sins, and for the sins of others; of whom (alas) I fear many cannot lament
for themselves, because they have sold themselves to work impiety, with
all greediness, without sense and feeling of any dolour that proceedeth
from God. Yet, Lord, thou knowest thine own, and thou drawest from iniquity
all that unfeignedly call upon thy name. There are seven years past, since
a scroll, sent from a Jesuit to his Brother, was presented unto me by a
faithful brother, requiring some answer to be made to the same; whose just
petition, I, willing to obey, I put my hand to the pen, although I found
small time of quietness; for it was immediately after that I was called
back from exile, by the Kirk [Church] of Edinburgh, after Davids
judgment.1
Amongst my other cares, I scribbled that which follows, and that in a few
days; which being finished, I repented of my labour, and purposed fully
to have suppressed it. Which, no doubt, I had done, if that the Devil had
not stirred up the Jesuits, of purpose to trouble godly hearts, with the
same arguments which Tyrie uses, amplified and set forth, with all the
dog eloquence that Satan can devise for suppressing of the free progress
of the Evangel [Gospel] of Jesus Christ, and for the curing of that
wounded head of the Beast, that Roman Antichrist, who shall to destruction
in despite of all those that study either to erect, or yet to maintain
him and his damnable abuses: which God has disclosed to such as the Devil
has not blinded so that they can not discern betwixt darkness and light.
The order that is kept in answering of his proud arrogancy and presumptuous
foolishness, the entres [entrance, beginning] of the treatise will
declare.

I have added unto this Preface a meditation or prayer,
thrown forth of my sorrowful heart, and pronounced by my half dead tongue,
before I was compelled to leave my flock of Edinburgh, who now are dispersed,
suffering little less calamity then did the faithful after the persecution
of Stephen. Lord, comfort and strengthen them to the end, that once we
may meet in glory; for all worldly meeting is but vain, and an occasion
of new dolour. Call for me, dear Brethren, that God in his mercy will please
to put end to my long and painful battle: For now being unable to fight,
as God sometimes gave strength, I desire an end before I be more troublesome
to the Faithful. And yet, Lord, let my desire be moderated by thy Holy
Spirit, and give me patience to bear whatsoever it pleases thy Godly Majesty
to lay upon this my wicked carcass.

THE
PRAYER.

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, and put an end, at thy
good pleasure, to this my miserable life; for justice and truth are not
to be found amongst the sons of men!

JOHN KNOX, with
deliberate mind, to his God.

Be merciful unto me, O Lord, and call not into judgment
my manifold sins; and chiefly those, whereof the world is not able to accuse
me. In youth, mid age, and now, after many battles, I find nothing in me
but vanity and corruption. For, in quietness I am negligent, in trouble
impatient, tending to desperation; and in the mean state, I am so carried
away with vain fantasies, that, (alas), O Lord, they withdraw me from the
presence of thy Majesty. Pride and ambition assault me on the one part,
covetousness and malice trouble me on the other: briefly, O Lord, the affections
of the flesh do almost suppress the operation of thy Spirit. I take thee,
O Lord (who only knows the secrets of hearts) to record, that in none of
the foresaid I do delight; but that with them I am troubled, and that sore
against the desire of my inward man, which sobs for my corruption, and
would repose in thy mercy alone. To the which I claim, and that in the
promise that thou hast made to all penitent sinners (of whose number I
profess myself to be one) in the obedience and death of my only saviour,
our Lord Jesus Christ. In whom, by thy mere grace, I doubt not myself to
be elected to eternal salvation, whereof thou hast given unto me (unto
me, O Lord, most wretched and unthankful creature) most assured signs.
For being drowned in ignorance, thou hast given to me knowledge above the
common sort of my brethren; my tongue hast thou used to set fourth thy
glory, to oppugn idolatry, errors, and false doctrine. Thou hast compelled
me to forespeak [prophesy], aswell deliverance to the afflicted,
as destruction to certain disobedient; the performance whereof, not I alone,
but the very blind world has already seen. But above all, O Lord, thou,
by the power of thy Holy Spirit, hast sealed in my heart remission of
my sins, which I acknowledge and confess myself to have received by the
precious blood of Jesus Christ once shed; by whose perfect obedience I
am assured my manifold rebellions are defaced, my grievous sins purged,
and my soul made the tabernacle of thy godly Majesty. Thou, O Father of
mercies, thy Son our Lord Jesus, my only Saviour, Mediator, and Advocate,
and thy Holy Spirit, remaining in the same by true faith; which is the
only victory that overcometh the world.

To thee, therefore, O Lord, I commend my spirit; for I
thirst to be resolved from this body of sin, and am assured that I shall
rise again in glory, howsoever it be that the wicked, for a time, shall
trod me, and others thy servants, under their feet. Be merciful, O Lord,
unto the Kirk within this Realm; continue with it the light of thy Evangel;
augment the number of true preachers; and let thy merciful providence look
upon my desolate bedfellow, the fruit of her bosom, and my two dear children,
Nathanael and Eleezer. Now, Lord, put end to my misery!

At Edinburgh, the 12. of March, 1565.

AN ANSWER TO A LETTER OF A JESUIT, NAMED
TYRIE,BY JOHNE KNOX.

OF late days there came to our hands
a Letter, direct unto you, right worshipful, from JAMES
TYRIE, who styleth himself your humble servant and
brother. The beginning whereof showeth the care that he bears of your salvation,
his charity that has moved him so oft to write unto you, and therewith
covertly he accuses you, that he has received no answer of his former,
and yet that the same charity moveth him still to continue in his former
suit. In the progress of the said letter he plainly shows forth what is
his scope and purpose; to wit, to alienate your mind from the truth of
God, now of Gods great mercy, after long darkness, offered to this Realm.
The purpose, as we suppose, whereof ye send the same letter unto us, is
that we may give solutions to the things that he objects against the truth.
Which to do were not very hard, provided that his indictment were sensible,
and his arguments formal, and proper to that which he would persuade. But
because, in writing, he appeareth to us rather scabrushly to have translated
that which he writes forth of Latin, or of some other foreign tongue, then
freely to have expressed his own mind; and because that his arguments are
not only impertinent, but also so general that in no wise they conclude
that which he would prove,our answers must exceed the measure of a missive;
and yet we shall avoid, so far as we can, all unprofitable prolixity. But
lest that any should think that we deprive either his indictment or arguments,
we shall insert his whole letter, from parcel to parcel, and give answer
to such heads as either are blasphemous against the truth of God, or yet
may be offensive to the weak conscience of men. In other things we shall
not be curious. His letter thus begins:

TYRIES
LETTER.

Sir, After hartly commendation, of service,
and prayers, that I have written so oft afore (we keep his own words and
ortography), it come of my charity, that I ought to you, for sundry reasons,
and of the solicitude that charity caused me to have of the eternal salvation
of your soul, desired by your answer to have known your mind in that behalf;
which, since I have not obtained as yet, I have thought, having opportunity
of this bearer, to write this writing amongst the rest, and to exhort you
thereby, that ye would earnestly (as it becomes a man to whom God has
given so many gifts and talents) and ripely consider by what way ye must
come to that end, to the which God has created and redeemed you. {486}

ANSWER.

To this long preface we only answer this:That if the
Scribes and Pharisees, who compassed sea and land to make a proselyte,
gat a curse by the mouth of our master, Jesus Christ (Matt. 23.), notwithstanding
all their apparent zeal and painful travail; who can doubt but that such
as study to draw back again to superstition and idolatry such as God has
called from the same, shall receive a double malediction, under what pretence
that ever they do it? For, if they, who brought Ethnics and manifest Idolaters
to some religion, were accursed, how much more are they detestable, that
travail to bring men from a true religion to the deepest idolatry that
ever yet was upon the face of the earth? Which long has been maintained
in the Papistical Kirk, whereto we perceive the writer of the letter would
entice you, as his subsequent persuasions manifestly declareth. For thus
he writeth:

TYRIES
LETTER.

Which appears to me to be the only faith
and religion kept in the Catholick Kirk of Christ since the beginning thereof.
Which appears clearly, by the most plain words of the Prophet Isaiah, where
he speaks of the Kirk, Gens et Regnum quod non servierit tibi, peribit.

Which words, if any would apply to their
new found kirks [newly founded churches], and specially to your
invisible Kirk of Scotland (but yet eight years old), he is convicted.
For it is manifest, that before a thousand years in all the world was their
people that believed as they do who defend the contrary, which no man but
he that would show his impudence and his ignorance together dare deny:
and of the Kirk whereof the Prophet speaks, it is said by him, in the second
chapter, that it shall be manifest and visible through all the world. Wherefore,
if ye can not show what place of the world afore three hundred years your
Kirk was in, it follows of necessity, that it is no Kirk, &c. Thus
far his letter.

ANSWER.

The first part of his counsel we approve, and add thereto,
that the life everlasting consists in the knowledge of the only true God,
and in the knowledge of him whom he has sent, Jesus Christ (John 17). That
he that believes in the Son of God has life everlasting, and is already
past from death to life; but he that believes not, shall not see life,
but the wrath of God abides upon him (John 5). We further affirm, that
without the society and bosom if the true Kirk, never was, is, nor shall
be, salvation unto man. In these and like general heads we disagree not
from the Papists; but the difference and doubt stands in the specials,
to wit, what Faith is, and what ground it has; what is Religion, and wherein
it differs from superstition and from idolatry: {487} and finally, what
is the true Kirk, and how it may be discerned from the synagogue of Satan.
These heads, we say, ought he in special to have entreated unto you, if
he had been minded to have instructed you in a truth. But because (as the
progress of his letters declareth), his mind was to draw you to the bondage
of that Roman Antichrist, he takes general propositions, most true and
most certain in themselves, whereupon he would conclude that which is most
false and altogether pernicious to the salvation of man. To let the craft
of Satan more evidently appear, we shall draw his persuasion in form of
argument, and after return to the farther meaning of the Prophet, and to
the declaration of these terms, Faith, Religion, and Catholick Kirk.

This whole argument we admit, and most constantly we do
affirm it; and yet shall he never be able to prove his intent, which is,
that the Kirk of Scotland is no Kirk. We will open the wound which the
writer of the letter keeps covered, and yet it most grieves him, as it
doth the rest of all Papists. The realm of Scotland (all praise to God)
has refused the Pope, that Roman Antichrist; and not only by preaching,
but also by the public laws, has damned his tyrannical laws, his odious
superstitions, and usurped jurisdiction. And therefore cry the Papists,
that we are declined from the true Kirk, and are fallen back from the Catholick
faith. But before that they be able to convict us of those crimes, they
must prove two things. Former, that whatsoever was promised to Jerusalem
does properly and only appertain unto Rome; and this must they do, not
by conjectures, but by plain words, as God pronounced by his Prophet of
Jerusalem. This is the first. The second is, that albeit Rome were as able
to prove a promise made to it, as Jerusalem was, of whom it was said,This
is my rest; hear will I dwell, because I have chosen it; and albeit that
the Popes of Rome, whom he stiles the perpetual succession of that Kirk,
had as an assured and plain probation, that by God they were called, by
God they were admitted, and that by God they should be maintained in their
ministry and function, as that the Levites and succession of Aaron had to
produce at all times for their defence; yet if they, (we say), who call
themselves the successors of the Apostles, be not able to prove, that they
have constantly remained in the first league and covenant which Christ
made with his Apostles, when he sent them forth to preach the glad tidings
of the kingdom, and to establish his throne, not only amongst the Jews,
{488} but also amongst the Gentiles, according to the former prophecies:
Albeit, we say, that all these former they were able to prove (as they
are never able to do), yet have they said nothing that may help their cause,
nor hurt ours, unless that they therewith plainly prove that the Kirk of
Rome, and the succession of the same, has remained and yet remaineth in
the original purity of the Apostles, in doctrine, life, laws, and ceremonies.
For these being corrupted, the title of succession will no more help them
than did the bragging of the priests under the law, who cried against the
Prophet Jeremie"the Temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple
of the Lord." What was answered unto them, let the 7th chapter of his Prophecy
witness. But farther, of the succession, and of the assurance thereof,
after.

Now must we something speak of Faith, Religion, and the
Catholic Kirk, wherewith he would terrify your conscience and deface the
truth; and then must we answer to his blasphemous taunts and mockage. Before
we have confessed, that to live without Faith, without Religion, and without
the society of the Catholick Kirk, brings with it most certainly death
and damnation. But yet, we affirm, that all opinion that is commonly received
under the name of faith, is not faith which God approves; but true faith
must have for the ground and assurance thereof Gods expressed word, of
his mercy, promised in Christ Jesus, whereto the heart of the faithful
must consent, so moved by the Holy Ghost. And therefore we fear not to
affirm, that the Papists, having no better ground for their faith than
consent of men, decrees of councils, and antiquity of time, have no faith,
but a fond [foolish], yea, a damnable opinion. And the same we affirm
of Religion, which, if it be pleasing and acceptable unto God, must have
his own commandment and approbation for a warrant; otherwise it cannot
be but odious in his presence, as a thing repugning to his express commandment,
saying, not that which appears good in thy own eyes shalt thou do to the
Lord thy God, but what the Lord thy God has commanded thee, that do thou:
add nothing to it, diminish nothing from it (Deut. 4 & 12.) By this
precept of that Eternal God, who is immutable, and that can command nothing
but that which is just, are all people, realms, and nations, (that will
avow themselves to be the inheritance of the Lord,) bound and obliged to
measure there religion, not by the example of other realms, neither yet
by their own good intention, or determination of men, but only by the expressed
word of God. So that what therein is commanded, ought to be done by the
people of God, what appearance or external show of holiness that ever it
has. And, therefore, have we most justly rejected the rabble of ceremonies
which the Papists held for the chief exercise of their religion, as things
having no better ground than the invention and consent of men. {489}

Now shortly, of the Kirk commonly called Catholick. The
name of the Kirk is common, and is taken as well for the congregation of
the wicked, as for the assembly of the godly; as it is plain by the words
of David, saying, "I have hated the kirk, or the assembly of the wicked"
(Psalm 26). The term Catholick, which signifies Universal, has not included
in it that virtue which Papists allege, that is, that whatsoever is "Catholick,"
that it must be good. For if it so were, then sin in the original world
should have been good, for it was so Catholick (that is, universal) that
it overflowed the whole earth, only one house excepted. How universal idolatry
was amongst the Gentiles, histories witness; and how broad the pestilent
sects of Mahomet is this day spread, experience does teach us. And yet
we suppose, that no man of right judgment will either approve the one or
the other, notwithstanding of their universality; and, therefore, we must
have a better assurance of that Kirk, to which we ought to join our selves,
than that it is Catholick or universal: to wit, it must be holy, and the
communion of saints; for in the Confession of our Faith, we say not, I
believe the Kirk universal, but, "I believe the holy Kirk universal, the
communion of saints." Wherefore we affirm, that if that Kirk, which is
called Catholick or universal, have not holiness in the heart by true faith,
and the confession of the same in the mouth, and in the forehead, it ceases
to be the immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ, in whose bosom the sons of
God are nourished to the life everlasting. And so before that the writer
of the letter shall be able to convict us, that we have declined from the
holy Kirk, he must first define what is the very holiness of the Kirk,
wherein it consists, from whom it flows, and what is the effect of the
same. And when thus he has done, he must prove that the Kirk of Rome has
been and is, only holy, so that no kirk before it did ever enjoy that title,
neither yet that any that after may ensue it, may so be justly called;
and thus we think shall be very hard to Master Tyrie and all the Jesuits
in Europe to prove.

But now, that the vanity of his argument may the more
evidently appear, we will, in as few words as we can, examine the mind
of the Prophet. Such as diligently marks the scope of the Prophet Isaias,
shall clearly see, that from the 40th chapter of his Prophecy, to the end
of the same, he travails principally to comfort Jerusalem, and the nation
of the Jews, whose miserable destruction and fearful captivity he foresaw
in spirit, [he] pronounced the same in his public sermons, and left the
memorial and undoubted register thereof to the posterity that was to follow,
and was to be partakers of all the plagues that were before spoken. And
lest that they, in the midst of their calamity should have despaired of
any deliverance, from the same 40th chapter back, we say that the Prophet
as the Messenger of God's mercy, pronounceth to Jerusalem, to Mount Sion,
and to the afflicted Jews, deliverance {490} from captivity, the protection
of God to be their defence, the destruction of Babylon, and of all their
enemies; the coming of the Messiah promised unto them, the felicity of
his kingdom, the vocation of the Gentiles; and finally, the promises flowing
from mercy, that he had made unto them to continue forever. And among their
manifold promises, this was one, "The kingdom and the nation that shall
not serve thee, shall perish."

Now, gladly would we learn of the writer, to what realm,
to what nation, to what province or city will he appoint us, that therein
we may serve Jesus Christ, and his immaculate spouse, the Kirk, to the
end that we should not perish. If he would name Rome, and the Kirk thereof,
then must we demand two things: the former, What became of all the faithful
the space of a thousand years that flowed betwixt the making of the former
promises and the days of the Apostles, what time the Evangel began publicly
to be offered unto the Gentiles; All which time Rome was nothing but a
den of idolatry. We think he will not say that the faithful perished; and
we are bold to say, that the faithful served not Rome, neither yet the
Kirk contained therein all that time. This is the first whereof we would
be resolved. The second is, that if the writer will allege that during
all the time the promise foresaid appertained to Jerusalem and unto Mount
Sion; but that after the ascension of Jesus Christ, and after that the
Evangel was received of the Gentiles, the promise, which before was made
to Jerusalem, was transferred unto Rome: if so be, we pray the writer, that
after he has consulted with the finest Papists, be they Jesuits, or be
they others, that he will show unto us where we shall find the resignation
and the assurance thereof. We clearly read the promises made to Jerusalem
and unto Mount Sion. We find that the Evangel was there preached in despite
of Satan. We find that from thence Peter and John were sent to Samaria,
and thereafter the Evangel was planted amongst the Gentiles. We find further,
that Paul wrote to the saints that were at Rome, and that he himself was
carried prisoner to it, and that he remained two years there under custody
in his lodging: but that ever the promises made to Jerusalem were transferred
unto Rome, we find not. And, therefore, albeit that we of the Realm of
Scotland have refused Rome and the tyranny thereof, we think not that we
have refused the society of Christs Kirk; but that we are joined with
it, and daily are fed of our mothers breasts, because we embrace no other
doctrine than that which first flowed forth of Jerusalem, whose citizens
by grace we avow ourselves to be.

But now to the taunting blasphemies of the writer. It
pleases him to term our Kirks "new found," "invisible," "yet but eight years
old," &c., and our Evangel "newly invented." Which blasphemies, albeit
that man tolerate, yet we are assured the Eternal, our God, shall not suffer
unpunished in {491} this life, and in the life to come, unless that speedy
and unfeigned repentance blot away the same.

But the writer left to the judgment of God, we would know
of him why he calleth our Kirks "new found," and our Evangel but "new invented."
He appeareth to give his reason in these words (for says he) "it is manifest,
that before a thousand years in all the world was there people that believed
as they do who defend the contrare."

This reason containeth in it such folly, besides the obscurity
and generality of it, that we stand in doubt at what member we shall begin
to confute the same. But because his greatest strength appeareth to stand
in thisthat before a thousand years, there was people in all the world
that believed otherwise than we believe; to that head we will first answer,
and say, that granted, that before a thousand years, there was people in
all the world that believed as Papists now believe, what shall thereof
yet be concluded, that our Kirks are new found? And will he say, that our
Evangel is but newly invented? A good dialectician would answer, that albeit
the antecedent were granted, the consequent may justly be denied. And the
reason is, because that neither doth the Kirk, the faith of the same,
nor the authority of the Evangel of Christ Jesus, depend upon that which
men believed before that it was published. Neither yet is the age of the
Kirk to be computed from the time when it pleased God of his mercy, either
to reveal his word to any realm or nation that before was ignorant of it,
or yet to reform abuses which have taken root amongst the people of God
by the negligence of men. And that this reason and proposition is true,
the consideration of the planting of the Kirk, and of the divers reformations
made within the same, shall witness.

When God called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans (Gen.
12.), and made to him the promise of the blessed seed, and after gave unto
him the sign of circumcision; were there not people dispersed universally
upon the face of the earth, who believed and thought that they had a good
and perfect religion, yea, even that same religion (as they supposed) wherein
Noah served God? And yet we know that the spirit of God damneth the multitude
of that age of idolatry, and thereintill magnifies the mercy of God, who
from that corrupted multitude called Abraham, and by grace made him the
father of the faithful. Now would we demand of the writer of the letter,
if the age of Abrahams faith should have been measured from the error
of the multitude that past before him? and if that the age of the Kirk
gathered within his house should have been called an eight-year-old kirk,
when that Abraham had so long obeyed God, while that all the world continued
in their idolatry? We demand, (we say,) if their old idolatry made Abrahams
faith to be but a "new found faith;" and if their multitude and universality
having for them antiquity, made the kirk {492} that was in Abrahams house
to be a "new found kirk?" We suppose that men of judgment shall otherwise
pronounce and subscribe with us, that the faith of Abraham had the same
antiquity that the word had which he believed. Now plain it is, that the
word which he believed was the selfsame word which God pronounced unto
the woman in the garden, speaking against the serpent, saying, "I shall
put enmity betwixt thee and the woman, betwixt thy seed and her seed, that
seed shall break down thy head, and thou shall break down his heal" (Gen.
3). This promise, we say, being especially made to Abraham, in these words"In
thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," was the ground
of his faith, like as that it was the ground of the faith of Adam; Abel;
Seth; and of all the faithful before him: so that his faith was no new
faith, but was that same faith which had continued amongst Gods elect
from the beginning. For true faith may not be measured from the error of
men, but from the word and promise which the faithful believe. Is the word
from the beginning, and the promise undoubted? then must the faith that
thereupon is grounded, not only be true, but also of the same age and antiquity
that the word is. And therefore, whensoever the Papists and we shall come
to reckon of the age of our faith, we doubt nothing but that their faith,
in more principal points nor [than] one or two, shall be found very young, and
but lately invented, in respect of that only true faith which this day
in the Kirks of Scotland is professed. And the selfsame thing affirm we
of our Kirk, and of the Evangel preached within the same; to wit, that
the Evangel which of Gods mercy is revealed unto us, is not forged by
man, but that it is the selfsame Evangel which Jesus Christ taught by
his own mouth, and that his Apostles, at his commandment published unto
the world. And therefore we say, that our Kirk is no new found Kirk, (as
the writer blasphemously raileth,) but that it is a part of that holy Kirk
universal, which is grounded upon the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles;
having the same antiquity that the Kirk of the Apostles has, as concerning
doctrine, prayers, administration of sacraments, and all other things requisite
to a particular Kirk.

But yet will the writer of the letter allege, that we
believe not as the most part of men have believed a thousand years and
more: for they believed the Mass to be a Sacrifice propitiatory for the
sins of the quick and the dead; the Pope to be the head of the Kirk, and
Christs vicar in the earth; the material body of Christ Jesus, flesh,
blood, and bone, to be in the Sacrament of the Altar, after that the words
of consecration were pronounced by a priest; Super materia debita: that
the prayers of the living profit departed, and such others as the Catholick
faith of the Papists have concluded:

These Articles, will the writer say, we believe not; and
therefore how can it be denied but that our Kirk is new found, and the
doctrine {493} thereof is new? We have answered, and yet we answer again,
that whatsoever Papists have believed before us, which hath no better ground
than that determination of their own council, can neither prejudge our
faith grounded upon Gods expressed word, neither yet can prove our Kirk
to be but a new found Kirk. For if a common error, and a superstitious
worshipping of God, received of a multitude, should have that strength,
that it should prevail against Gods simple truth, and against his worshipping
prescribed in his word, then had the Prophet Elias been in a miserable
condition; who being but one man opposed himself to the King, to his Council,
to his Prophets, Priests, and people, and in plain words accused them all
of apostasy from God, from his true worshipping, and from the obedience
of his law, and plainly convicted them to be idolatrous, because they had
embraced a worshipping of God not contained in his word. It is a wonder
that the king with his priests and prophets excepted not against the Prophet,
and said, how can that be idolatry, which our kings and people since the
days of Jeroboam, have used and maintained for Gods true service? Thou
art but one man, and we are a multitude; how can it be that we all should
err, and that thou alone should please God? But no such thing find we objected
unto the Prophet. But his request, being but one man, was obeyed; which
was, that God himself should judge betwixt him and them, as that he did
by fire from heaven.

This privilege crave we to be granted to us of the Papists
in our days; to wit, that they suffer God to judge betwixt our religion
and theirs. What he approveth, let it be approven of both; and what by
him is not commanded, nor by the Apostles of Jesus Christ established and
practiced, let it be of both rejected, and so shall we suddenly agree.
But if that they will still cry that we are schismatics and apostates,
because we refuse to defile ourselves with their abominations, we cannot
but appeal from their corrupt sentence to the uncorrupt Judge, of whose
favours we are assuredly persuaded in that point, because he hath said,
Follow not the multitude in evil doing; and because that we find Kings,
Prophets, and people before us, to have done the selfsame thing in their
days, (and therefore to have been approved of God), which we in Gods fear
have done in our days: to wit, they have destroyed the monuments of idolatry,
and have repressed the same externally by power and force, notwithstanding
the antiquity thereof, and that great multitudes adhered unto it. And this
much for the multitude, and that which the multitude most commonly believeth.
Now to the further reasons of the writer.

He first taunts and mocks us, and our Kirk, calling it
"your invisible Kirk of Scotland." Secondly, he affirmeth that the Kirk whereof
the Prophet speaks shall be manifest and visible through all the world;
and for his proof, alleges the second chapter of the Prophet Isaiah. And
{494} last, he concludes, in these words: "Wherefore, if ye cannot show
in what place of the world, afore three hundred years, your Kirk was into,
it followeth of necessity that it is no Kirk."

To these heads we must answer in order: And first, we
will pray the writer, in his next answer, to signify unto us, why he calleth
the Kirk of Scotland invisible, seeing that the ground and the persons
inhabitant within the same are subject to the senses of all those that
list [desire] to look upon them. Yea, the doctrine taught unto us is so patent,
that the very enemies themselves are not forbidden to hear and to judge
of it. And finally, the administration of the Sacraments within our kirks
are so public, that none justly can complain, that they are either debarred
from hearing or from sight. And therefore, howsoever it pleaseth the writer
to delight himself in his own vanity, we fear not to affirm, that the Kirk
of God, within Scotland this day is as visible as ever it was in Jerusalem,
after that Christ Jesus ascended to the heavens, or as that it was visible
in Samaria after that it received the Evangel. Yea, we will further affirm,
that the true Kirk of Jesus Christ is as visible, yea, and as beautiful
in all her proper ornaments this day, within the Realm of Scotland, as
ever she was in Corinthus, Galatia, Philipi (yea, or yet in Rome itself),
what time that any of the Apostles ruled them, or that when they were saluted
by the Apostle in his Epistles for Kirks: and this for the first head.

The answer to the second cannot be so short; for his
assertion agrees so little with the place of the Prophet, that we stand
greatly in doubt whether that ever the writer has travailed to understand
the mind of the Prophet. His assertion is this:"Of the Kirk whereof the
Prophet speaketh, It is said by him, in the second chapter that it shall
be manifest and visible through all the world." The words of the Prophet
are these: "It shall be in the last days, that the mountain of the house
of the Lord shall be prepared in the top of the mountains, and shall be
exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people
shall go and say, Come, let us go up unto the mountain of the Lord, to
the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will
walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth of Sion, and the word of
the Lord from Jerusalem; and he shall judge among the nations, and rebuke
many people," &c. (Isaiah 2.) In these words of the Prophet we find
no such thing as the Kirk shall be manifest and visible through all the
world. We acknowledge a promise of glad things to come, to be joined to
Jerusalem, and unto Mount Sion, after the miserable destruction of the
same. We find the time appointed, to wit, the last days. But that the promise
may be the better tried, we must know of the writer, when these last days
began; and when they shall be completed? We must further know, if there
be any one certain place appointed, in the which {495} it is said, that
the Kirk of God shall be visible and manifest in all ages? These two heads
being considered, it shall be more easy to judge of the assertion of the
writer, and how it agrees with the mind of the Prophet.

And first, we think that the writer will not deny, but
the last days, whereof the Prophet speaks, began long before that ever
the Evangel of Jesus Christ was known or publicly received in Rome; to
wit, at the appearing of Jesus Christ in the flesh, when that he revealed
unto the world the whole will of his Father. For so are we taught by the
Apostle, saying, "God in old times spake unto our fathers in divers manners
by the prophets; in the last days he hath spoken to us by his son," &c.
(Heb. 1.) And the Apostle Peter, in that his most notable sermon made to
Jerusalem, the day of Pentecost, affirms, that the prophecy of Joel, made
as concerning the pouring forth of Gods graces upon all flesh in the last
days, was even then complete, when that the Holy Spirit descended down
upon those that believed. (Acts 2.) So then, we have gotten the last days
to have begun with Jesus Christ, who is the glory of the second temple.
When think we that they ended? If the writer will say, when Rome received
the Evangel, then was the accomplishment of the last days; as men justly
may doubt thereof, so will the Apostle plainly deny, saying; "The Spirit
speaketh evidently, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith,"
&c. (1 Tim. 4.1.) Whereof we may gather, that the Apostle appointeth
the last times to continue longer than that the Evangel was once publicly
preached; to wit, till that men should begin to fall from the faith, and
give ears to the doctrine of devils. Yea, if ye will search the Scriptures,
we shall find that the last days continue from the first appearing of Jesus
Christ in flesh, unto his last returning unto judgment. So that the last
days do not only include the first publication of the Evangel, but also
the defection from it; yea, and the restitution of it again unto the world,
by the brightness whereof, that man of sin should be revealed and destroyed.
Whereof we conclude, that if the last days do yet continue, whereof the
Prophet maketh mention, the things promised to be performed in them are
not yet altogether complete, but are in their progress, and shall so proceed
till that all be finished that is forespoken by the holy Prophets and Apostles
of Jesus Christ. And so may Jesus Christ this day be working in Scotland,
albeit that Papists rage against his Evangel, as in those days he wrought
in Jerusalem, when the priests and the whole visible Kirk, (for the most
part,) raged against the same. But now to the second head.

We would know, if the writer can appoint unto us any one
certain place where this holy mountain of God is promised to remain, manifestly
and visible. For this we make known to the whole world, that for the love
we bear to the building and repairing of Gods holy house, we {496} have
endangered life and all things temporal: and, therefore, if the writer
can appoint unto us a certain place whereunto God has made promise, we
shall every one exhort another, with all diligence, to go up thereunto.
But if he can appoint none, having greater assurance by Gods mouth, more
than another, then will we charitably desire him to desist from taunting
and mockage of so notable works of God, as he of late years has shown in
more Realms than one. Our Master Christ Jesus appoints us to no one certain
place, where that we shall be assured of his presence; but rather forbidding
the observation of all places, he sends us to his own spiritual presence,
saying, "Wheresoever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in
the midst of them." (Matt. 18.) And in another place, "Behold I am with
you to the end of the world." (Matt. 28.) We, being grounded upon these
promises, have good hope, through Jesus Christ, that in our congregations
we have the favourable presence of Jesus Christ, as well in his word as
in his holy Sacraments. For in his Name alone convene we; by him alone
we call upon God our Father; and by him alone we are assured, through the
power of his Holy Spirit, to obtain our requests made according to his
will. We wonder greatly that the writer considers not that the promise
of the Prophet is, That all nations shall come to that holy mountain. We
are a nation, (how abject that ever we appear). Why then will the writer
deny unto us free passage to the house of the Lord; seeing that the term
of the last days is not yet expired, and seeing that we desire to be taught
in the ways of the Lord, and to walk in his paths; yea, seeing that thousands
in Scotland refuse not to be rebuked of the Lord, and to suffer him to
judge amongst us? If the writer will say, because we will not acknowledge
Rome to be the mother of all other Kirks, we answer as before; let us hear
the commandment of our God, charging us so to do, and our obedience shall
not be long craved. For we are most willing to obey our mother, providing
that she show the undoubted signs of a natural mother; but an usurped title
without farther assurance we dare not admit. And this far for his assertion,
and for the mind of the Prophet.

Now followeth his conclusion in these words: "Wherefore,
if ye cannot show what place of the world afore three hundred years your
Kirk was into, it followeth of necessity, that it is no Kirk," &c.

How this conclusion may be rightly gathered of the words
of the Prophet, we suffer the readers and the writer himself to consider.
And yet, because that to us it were a thing most grievous so to be excommunicate
that we were no Kirk; that is, no parcel of the holy Kirk universal; we
answer for our beginning, and say, That before fifteen hundred years our
Kirk was in Jerusalem, in Samaria, in Antiochia, and wheresoever Christ
Jesus was truly preached, and his blessed Evangel obediently received,
whether it was amongst the Jews or Gentiles. There {497} we say was our
Kirk, which is not bound to any one place, but is dispersed upon the face
of the whole earth; having one God, one faith, one baptism, and one Lord
Jesus, Saviour of all that unfeignedly believe. And so we fear not to receive
the title and authority of a particular Kirk, because we have all things
by Gods word that thereto appertains. Yea, we are farther bold to affirm,
that if ever it shall please God to bring the Kirk of Rome to her original
purity, that she shall not be ashamed to embrace and reverence the pure
Kirk of Scotland as her dearest sister, and next resembling her in all
things, before that pride and avarice, joined with idleness and riotous
living, corrupted her ministers, and that the inventions of men were preferred
to Gods simple truth. We say yet again, that whensoever the Kirk of Rome
shall be reduced to that estate in the which the Apostles left it, we are
assured that she shall vote in our favours, against all such as shall deny
us to be a Kirk, if God continue us in that simplicity which this day is
mocked of the world. Now let us hear how the writer proceedeth:

TYRIES
LETTER.

And swiftly if ye or any of your cunning
ministers of your new invented Evangel show me the due succession of his
Kirk since Christ, and, by that, agree the manifest contradiction that
both I have read and seen with my eye amongst the doctors and principals
of your new doctrine, I shall not only renounce the sentence which I have
held heretofore, but also shall afore all that will hear me, confess my
ignorance and fault, and shall employ all my strength to the forthsetting
of your religion, &c.

ANSWER.

Of this part of the writers letter, and of that which
is past before, it is easy to consider, that he will acknowledge no kirk
to be the true Kirk of Jesus Christ, unless that it can show the due succession
thereof from the days of Jesus Christ: And farther, that the teachers of
it do so agree in doctrine, that in no point they be found to differ one
from another. We answer, if the immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ were
bound to these two extremities, the bondage thereof were most miserable;
but, because we find our Master Jesus Christ is more favourable to his
pure Kirk than Master Tyrie craves, we are decreed to stand in that freedom
and liberty whereunto our Head and only Sovereign Lord has called us.

We find, that he sends not his afflicted Kirk to seek
a lineal succession of any persons before that he will receive them; but
he, with all gentleness calleth his sheep unto himself, saying, "Come unto
me all ye that labour and are laden, and I will ease you." (Matt. 11.)
And again, {498} "All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me: and
him that cometh to me I cast not away." (John 6.)

O golden and most comfortable sentence, pronounced of
Him who cannot lie! Here is no mention of any succession that we should
claim to, before that we be received of him who is the Head of the Kirk;
but only it is said that that which the Father giveth, and that the Son
receiveth, shall not be cast away; neither yet will he lose any that cometh
to him, but that he will save them and raise them up at the last day. And
the Apostle, speaking of the vocation [calling] of the Gentiles, sends them not to
seek a succession; but, in the person of the Ephesians, pronounceth this
sentence in favours of all that believe in Jesus Christ:

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but citizens with the saints and of the household of God: and are builded
upon the foundation of the Apostles, and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the building coupled together,
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." (Eph. 2.) Here we find men, who
before were strangers, made citizens with the saints and of the household
of God; we find them builded upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets;
we find Jesus Christ to be the chief corner stonebut we find no mention
of any such succession as Master Tyrie seemeth rigorously and without Gods
commandment to crave. And therefore we can not but wonder, why that mortal
man shall crave of us that which neither God the Father, his Son Christ
Jesus, neither yet the holy Apostles in their ministry, craved of any Realm
or Nation. And therefore, let Master Tyrie take this for an answer: That
an unjust request may be justly denied.

And yet, lest that the writer, or any other, should think
themselves rather mocked than answered, we add to the premises, That we
are able to show the succession of our Kirk directly and lawfully to have
flowed from the Apostles. And our reason is, because that in our kirks
we neither admit doctrine, rite, nor ceremony, which by their writings,
we find not authorized. And albeit that this shall not satisfy the new
start up Jesuits, yet our consciences are at rest, because we are assured
to be avowed of the Supreme Judge.

The second which he requireth is, that we shall agree
the manifest contradiction that is amongst the principal Doctors of our
"new doctrine" and "late invented Evangel." His blasphemy we remit by Gods
hand to be punished; and yet we would know what doctrine is that which
he terms new. Our Evangel, (as before is said), is that same which Jesus
Christ, by himself and by his Apostles manifested unto the world, as all
such as hear the form of our doctrine can witness. Where he desires us
to agree all controversies amongst our teachers: {499} we answer, bona
fide, that we know no controversy in doctrine, especially of that which
concerns mans salvation, within the Realm of Scotland, but that all the
preachers within our kirks uniformly agree in doctrine and judgment, notwithstanding
the diversity of gifts. If Master Tyrie would send us to conciliate all
controversies that are in Germany and elsewhere, his second petition has
no greater reason than had the former; for of God we have no farther charge
but to watch over that flock which is subject unto us. God has raised and
appointed us preachers to the Realm of Scotland; in the bounds whereof,
if we plant not true doctrine according to the talent committed to our
charge, and oppose ourselves to all kinds of errors that may infect the
flock, we shall be criminal before God. But that we are precisedly bound
to run from country to country to agree all controversies, albeit it were
even in the matters of religion, we find no express commandment given to
us in that behalf of our God. And, therefore, we must desire the inspection
of Master Tyries authority, by virtue whereof he may charge us to that
painful travail, before that we can promise obedience.

But Master Tyrie, we know will allege, that in writing
of his letter, there was no such thing in his mind; but that his meaning
was, that because we did not agree fully amongst ourselves in all heads,
therefore he would not be of our Kirk: for that in plain words he declareth,
&c. Now, all contention laid aside, we will desire Master Tyrie, and
the rest of his faction, deeply to consider, if they be builded upon a
sure foundation, while that they have none other cause why they oppose
themselves to the truth of God, now of his mercy revealed to the world,
but because that such as profess that truth agree not in all heads amongst
themselves.

We demand then, What if they had lived in the days of
the Apostles, when the preaching of Christ Jesus was no less odious to
the visible Kirk, to wit, to the posterity of Aaron and Levi, who then
ruled in Jerusalem, than has the light of the Evangel been of late years,
to that Roman Antichrist, and unto such as live by his merchandise? Would
Master Tyrie (we ask) and his faction have refused the Evangel, because
that in the bosom of the Kirk there arose great controversy, and that in
the especial heads of religion? For, did not some boldly affirm in the
Kirk of Antioch (Acts 15), that unless the Gentiles were circumcised according
to the law of Moses, they could not be saved. Which doctrine and affirmation
was more dangerous and more scandalous in those days than all the controversies
that yet are risen amongst such as have refused the damnable ways of the
Papistry, for it concerneth the chief head of justification. And will any
yet say, that therefore the Evangel was not the glad tidings of salvation?
And they that embraced it truly were not the true members of Jesus Christ?
{500}

We look [hope] that men will be more moderate than some show themselves
to be, who, for certain controversies of far less importance than that
was, dare boldly damn the truth and the professors of the same, because,
say they, Proprium est hereticorum a se invicem dissentire. That
is, "It is proper to heretics to disagree amongst themselves:" which sentence,
how ancient that ever it be, if it should be so understood as the Papist
doththat is, whosoever disagrees amongst themselves in matters of religion
they are heretics;if the former sentence (we say) should be so understood,
then shall we accuse more of heresy than can be excused in any one age
from Christ Jesus to this day. For did not Paul disagree from Peter? (Gal.
2.) Yea, he did so disagree from him, that he did resist him plainly to
his face, because that he walked not according to the right way of the
truth of the gospel. These were two principal pillars; the one appointed
to the Jews, and the other to the Gentiles. What shall we say of the hot
contention which fell betwixt Barnabas and Paul, which separated them that
before were joined in as straight conjunction as ever were two mortal men
upon the earth? (Acts 15.) If Master Tyrie and his Jesuits will allege
that these were but sudden passions, and did not concern any chief head
of doctrine, the Holy Ghost will prove the contrary. For the one touched
the conscience of men, concerning the freedom of meats; and the other the
admission of ministers, after that they had once fallen back from that
function: which heads were of greater weight in those days (as heretofore
we have said) than any controversy which the Papists are able to show to
be, or yet to have been, betwixt us that profess the Evangel and do abhor
their abominations. Farther reasoning of this head for this present we
omit, and will proceed with Master Tyries letter.

TYRIES
LETTER.

Wherefore, Sir, considering that in that
Kirk, in the which I am by the grace of God, there is continual succession
of doctrine, and that same self which is preached now, has been taught
in all ages; as it is manifest to any man that has read all ancient writers
afore our times. And moreover, I find it spread through all the world,
as in like manner it is manifest, and the experience does teach you; for
ye will come to no place where Christs doctrine is received, but ye will
find the religion, at least in many persons. Wherefore, if ye can not show
in no other religion the same, it follows evidently that no other religion
is the true religion. {501}

ANSWER.

To this epilogue, and argument gathered thereof, we answer
only thisThat of a manifest lie there can no truth be concluded. His manifest
and impudent lie, we say, is, That he affirms, that in that Kirk, in the
which he is, there is continual succession of doctrine, and that the self-same
which is preached now has been taught in all ages.This, we affirm, is
a most impudent lie. For now, and of late years, it hath been taught, and
of the people received, that the Mass was a sacrifice propitiatory for
the sins of the quick and the dead; That the Pope was the head of the Kirk,
and such other heads of most heretical doctrine, approved in the Papistical
Kirk: which heads we affirm were unknown in the age of the Apostles, or
yet of the Fathers that immediately followed them. And for the probation
thereof, we desire their writings to be produced, ever beginning at them
who were appointed of God to preach, and to plant the verity in the world.

We are not bound to credit whatsoever the Fathers have
spoken: but our faith, (as is before said), is builded upon the sure Rock,
Jesus Christ, and upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. (Eph.
2.) So far as any Fathers agree therewith, we reverently do embrace it;
but if the Fathers have affirmed anything without the warrant of the written
word of the Eternal our God, to whose only voice the sheep of his pasture
are bound, it is as lawful to us to reject that which proceedeth from man
and not from God, as it is easy to them to affirm it. Master Tyrie may
know that we use the words of the ancients.

It appeareth to us, to be the whole progress of Master
Tyries letter, that he and his faction can acknowledge no Kirk which,
in all ages, has not been visible to the eyes of men, having likewise a
visible succession. For, first, he affirms, that the Kirk whereof the Prophet
Isaiah speaks, should be manifest and visible through all the world. And
here, last, he allegeth, that we can come in no place where we shall not
find that Religion spread, at the least in many persons. And thereof he
concludes, that if we can not prove the like of our Religion, it follows
that it is not the true Religion.

If Master Tyrie recant not this assertion, he must correct
his creed. And where universally before we used to say, Credo sanctam
Ecclesiam, &c., he must say Video sanctam Ecclesiam. [That
is, as before we used to say, "I believe in the holy Church," he must say,
"I see the holy Church."] For if there be no Kirk upon the face of the
earth, but that which is visible, and that which may be shown first by
certain notes external, then superfluous and vain it were to us to say,
I believe the holy Kirk universal; but confidently we might affirm, I see
the holy Kirk. If Master Tyrie will say, We may {502} both see and believe,
and by our sight our faith may be strengthened; for Thomas saw the wounds
in the hands, feet, and side of Christ Jesus, and believed; and so may
we see the Kirk, and yet believe it. If we should grant so far to Master
Tyrie, yet were his argument nothing helped; for the question is not, Whether
that we may notify those things that we are bound to believe? but the question
is, If that we are not bound to believe those things which sometimes are
utterly removed from the external senses of men? Master Tyrie will acknowledge
no Kirk except that which has been, and is visible. We, in the contrary,
acknowledge and reverence the spouse of Christ Jesus, sometimes exiled
from the world (Rev. 12), receiving sometimes the wings of an eagle that
she may fly to the wilderness, where of God, and not of man, she hath her
place prepared. We reverence her which doth complain, that she hath been
desolate, barren, a captive, and a wanderer to and fro. That spouse of
Jesus Christ brags so little of her succession, visible to mans eyes,
that she is rest in admiration, who should have nourished her children
during the time of her banishment. (Isa. 49.)

If Master Tyrie be so well read in the ancient writers,
as in his writing he would show himself to be, then can he not be ignorant,
that it is not without great cause that the Holy Ghost hath taught us to
say, "I believe the holy Kirk universal:" to wit, because that oftentimes
it is that the Kirk militant is so afflicted, yea, the beauty thereof is
so obscured to the most part of the world, that the synagogue of Satan
usurps the title of the true Kirk, and Babylon is preferred to Jerusalem;
so that the elect are compelled to complain, and say, "We see not our own
signs, now is there no prophet any more amongst us." (Psalm 71.) Let the
days of Elias and his complaint witness whether that the Kirk of God is
always so visible, that it may be pointed forth with the finger of man.
Thus we write shortly, to give occasion to master Tyrie, and to such as
are blinded with that error, more deeply to consider that article of their
belief, and not so rashly to condemn such as God of his mercy calls from
darkness to light. Now to the rest of his letter.

TYRIES
LETTER.

There is some, I know, perchance for lack
either of good discourse or wit, measures the verity of the things they
follow by the worldly success they have in the following of it. But surely
I can not esteem you to be of that rank; and if ye were, I would exhort
you to read amongst the rest the seventy-second psalm (Psalm 73), and the
one-hundred-forty-third Psalm; whereby ye will easily understand, that neither
the prosperous success of your part, (in worldly things I mean), proves
that which ye follow {503} to be verity, nor yet our decay and adversity
makes our part to be convicted; yea, rather, the matter being considered
as it ought to be, your prosperity is rather a manifest argument of Gods
wrath, nor [than] of any truth of verity. For it is said by one godly, holy, cunning
man, an eleven-hundredth year bypast, "Quod nihil infelicius felicitate
peccantium quia et penalis nutritur impunitas, et mala voluntas, velut
interior hostis roboratur," &c.

ANSWER.

We might have passed by this parcel without answer, because
that nothing in it, conceived justly can be laid to our charge. For our
worldly felicity, prosperity, and rest, neither is, neither yet has been,
at any time since we have embraced the Evangel of Jesus Christ, such as
may nourish us in wickedness; neither yet are the Papists able to convict
us of such impiety, as all the world know hath reigned among them of more
years than an hundred thrice told. And in the mean time, to what honour
and worldly dignity they are ascended, we make themselves judges. If they
say, the doctrine which we teach is wondrously spread within this hundred
years, so that now it has almost freed itself from bondage, we would demand
of the Papists, If the Evangel of Jesus Christ ceased to be the doctrine
of salvation, what time the Kirks gat rest in Judea and elsewhere in the
days of the Apostles? If they answer, that they mean no such thing; then
yet we demand, if the hand of the Lord be more shortened now than that
it was in the primitive Kirk, so that now He may not as well maintain his
truth, and enlarge the kingdom of his only Son, as that he did in the days
of the Apostles? Whatsoever the Papists shall answer, we are assured, that
neither is his power diminished, so that he may not maintain his truth,
neither yet is his love so waxen cold towards his Kirk, but that he will
in his anger remember upon mercy.

Why do not those cruel men consider, what innocent blood
hath been shed for the testimony of Christs Evangel within these three-score
years? Would they that God at no time should show pity upon the patient
suffering of his afflicted Kirk? Would they that the sword should still
devour? Would they that the flaming fires should never be quenched? If
that so they would, they show themselves the sons of him who hath been
a murderer from the beginning, and yet continue in the same malice. But
our God beareth towards his weak children a fatherly affection, whereby
he is moved sometimes to stay the fury and rage of Satan for a season,
to the end that his chosen more gladly may prepare themselves to a new
battle. True it is, the doctrine of salvation is greatly enlarged; and
thereof we praise God: true it is, that Satan hath not universally such
power to persecute, as sometimes he hath had; but will Master Tyrie thereof
conclude, that {504} in our Kirk there is no strength? But now to the Scriptures
which Master Tyrie quoteth

True it is that David, in his seventy-third Psalm, (according
to the count of the Hebrews,) affirms, that neither the worldly prosperity
of the ungodly, nor yet the affliction of the godly, ought to discourage
such as fear God. In this general head, we agree with Master Tyrie and
with all Papists. But we affirm, that the notes and signs, which the Holy
Ghost giveth in that place, by the which the wicked shall be known, do
no wise appertain to us; but of many years most evidently have appeared,
and to this hour do yet appear, in the Pope, and in many of those that
maintain his kingdom. For, whether that the generation of that Roman Antichrist
hath been exempted from the troubles of men; whether that their pride has
been as visible as ever was their garment; whether that their eyes have
start out for fatness; and finally, whether that their licentious livings,
their oppression and presumption, have not plainly declared that they have
set their mouth against the heaven, we are content that the world (be it
never so blind), the histories of their lives, (not written by us, but
by their own scribes), and the very experience which all men now have,
and heretofore have had of their proceedings, bear record whether that
they or we be noted in that Psalm. We give Master Tyrie to understand,
that we are better acquainted with the lives and conversations of the Popes
and Cardinals than they think us to be; and that we know the strength of
their laws, decrees, statutes, and councils, better than the Jesuits know
the rule of Jesus, albeit that presumptuously they have usurped his name.
And therefore we will crave of Master Tyrie and of all his faction, that
in writing either to us, or yet to such as they would persuade, that they
use truth and simplicity; and so shall they find themselves better contented,
in reading of our answers. For this, before the Lord Jesus, we protest,
that it is the truth which we teach, and wherein we delight; the love whereof
causes us abhor all mans invention, superstition, and idolatry. And thus
far to the answers of the Scriptures which Master Tyrie quoteth.

Now to the sentence of the ancient writer, whose name
he suppresseth, we answer, That his words cut the throats of the proud
Papists of that age, and of all their followers since those days. For then
began the tail of the Dragon to draw the stars from the heaven to the earth
(Rev. 12); then began the fountains, which sometimes gave clear and wholesome
water to become bitter, yea, to be turned unto blood: and yet did they
prosper in all worldly felicity, which was the cause that many godly men,
lamenting that public corruption, were compelled to pronounce that and like
sentences against the very Kirk-men that then lived. And lest that Master
Tyrie should think that this we affirm {505} without authority, we remit
him to the writings of Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Bernard, and others,
that were neither come long before, nor after the time that he notes; whose
writings, if he shall diligently examine, he shall find what was their
judgment of the seat of Rome in their days. And what others, that after
followed added to the former impiety of their fathers, from the day that
once the Pope were decored [adorned], or rather deformed, with a triple crown, let
the writers of all ages since bear witness

And lest that Master Tyrie shall think that we put him
to too much pain, when that we send him to all writers in general, we shall
relieve him somewhat, and appoint him to two only, whom justly he cannot
suspect to have been corrupted by us. The one is Abbas Joachim, a man sometimes
of great authority and reputation amongst the Papists; the other is Joannes
Aventinus,2
historiographer, whose history was printed by command and with the privilege
of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Let the writings, we say, of these two,
bear witness what has been the judgment of divers men in divers ages, of
Rome, of the pride of the prelacy, of their corruption in life and doctrine,
and finally, of their defection from the truth.

Abbas Joachim,3
writing upon the words of the Revelation of John, "the sixth angel
poured forth his vial upon the great flood Euphrates," &c. has this
sentence, Si autem aquĉ hujus fluminis quod vocatur Euphrates,
populi sunt, et gentes, et linguĉ, quĉ parent Romano imperio;
si quidem civitas Romana ipsa, est nova Babilon,
&c. "That if (sayeth
he) the waters of this flood that is called Euphrates, be people, nations,
and tongues that obey the Roman empire, for the city of Rome itself is
new Babylon." This place, and that which ensues of the drying up of the
waters, evidently shows {506} what was the judgment of the writer in his
days of Rome; to wit, that it was become new Babylon. And lest that any
should think that the author meaneth of the ancient Roman empire, and not
of the regiment of the Kirk that was in it, or in the dominion thereof,
he explains himself after a while, that he interprets the great whore,
and the kings of the earth who commit whoredom with her. The great whore,
he says, the universal Fathers affirmed to be Rome: not, says he, as concerning
the congregation of the just, which sometimes was a pilgrimer in it, but
as concerning the multitude of the reprobate, who by their wicked works
blasphemeth and impugneth the same Kirk, being a pilgrimer with her. Let
Master Tyrie mark, that the writer saw in Rome two Kirks: the whore, and
her multitude dispersed in all the places of the empire; and the Kirk which
was a stranger, blasphemed and impugned by the multitude. And yet after
he explains himself more plainly, saying,
Reges vero terrĉ, dicti
sunt prĉlati, quibus concessum est regimen animarum. Quorum nonnulli
fornicantur cum Babilone, quumquidem ut placeant hominibus parvipendunt
et negligunt mandatum Dei; "The kings of the earth (says he) are called
the prelates, to whom the regiment of souls is committed, of whom, nevertheless,
some commit fornication with Babylon; because that they, for the pleasure
of men, neglect and despise the commandment of God." And lest that any
should think that such a sentence has recklessly escaped him, he doubles
the same words over again, saying,
Reges vero terrĉ esse prĉlatos
Ecclesiarum, quorum aliqui fornicantur cum Babilone, superius dictum est;
"It is before said (sayeth he), that the kings of the earth are the
prelates of the Kirks, of whom some commit whoredom with Babylon." And
proceeds further, saying, Et quod sequitur: Et mercatores terrĉ
de virtute deliciarum ejus, divites facti sunt ad falsos sacerdotes et
hipocritas, referendum est, qui negotiantes regnum Dei temporalibus lucris,
&c. That is, "and that which followeth, (sayeth he), and the merchants
of the earth were made rich of the power of her pleasures; that is to be
referred to the false priests and hypocrits, who, making merchandise of
the kingdom of God, gapes for temporal advantage," &c. And after a
little, upon these words, and the merchants of the earth shall mourn, &c.,
he says, Negotiatores terrĉ qui sicut superius dictum est, ipsi
sunt sacerdotes bruti qui nesciunt que Dei sunt. Sacerdotes animales qui
dati sunt in atrium exterius, ut manducent peccata populi: qui vendunt
orationes et missas pro denariis facientes domum orationis apothecam negotiationis,
facientes inquam forum publicum et speluncam latronum, &c. That
is, "The merchants of the earth, (as is before said), they are the brutish
priests, that know not those things that appertain to God; sensual priests
that are placed in the outward court, that they may eat the sins of the
people; who sell prayers and masses for money; making the house {507} of
prayer a shop of merchandise, yea, making it (I say) a public and open
market, and a den of thieves," &c.

If Master Tyrie, or any other of that sect, blame us of
railing (as commonly they use to do, when that we speak the truth), then
let him and them consider, that we learned not of Martin Luther what kind
of men the Papists were, but that which we speak and affirm now, we have
received of the Papists themselves. For this hath been the merciful providence
of God towards his little flock ever from the beginning, that when an universal
corruption began to spread itself, then were raised some, as it were one
or two amongst the whole multitude, to admonish the present age and the
posterities to come, how far men had declined from the original purity,
that at least God might have some testimony that the verity of God was
not altogether buried in the earth. But now let us hear the judgments of
others.

Such as be any thing acquainted with the histories of
the antiquity, can not be ignorant how vehement was the contention betwixt
Nicolas the first, and certain of the bishops of Germany, for the divorcement
and second marriage of Lotharius King of Hungary. Which of the two parties
had the just action, we dispute not; but what were the crimes laid to the
Pope in those days we shall shortly touch. After that Tetogandus4
and Guntherus, who were the two chief bishops that opposed themselves to
the pride of the Roman Bishop, had largely purged themselves of all things
wherewith he charged them, they enter in into most bitter accusation of
the said Nicolas Pope. And after other things, they laid to his charge,
that most tyrannically he had oppressed the liberty of the spouse of Jesus
Christ. And after that they have rehearsed the principal ornaments wherewith
the true Kirk was adorned, they say, Quĉ beneficia tu veluti latro
intercipis, templo Dei prĉripis, in teque; transfers, &c.
And after, Tu Pontificis quidem personam prĉ te fers, at tyrannum
agitas: sub habitu, et cultu pastoris, lupum sentimus: titulus Parentem
mentitur, tute factis Jovem ostentas.5
That is, "Which benefits thou as a murderer cutteth off, and takest away
from the Kirk of God, transferring them unto thyself. Thou showest the person
of a pastor, but plainly thou playest the tyrant: under the habit and clothing
of a shepherd, we feel the cruelty of a wolf." The title lies, for it calleth
thee Father, but thou thyself in thy works showest the thundering of Jupiter,
&c. "And therefore (say they) we know not thy voice, we regard not
thy statutes, neither yet fear we thy bulls, nor thunderings. If thou pretend
to interdict us, we fear not to cut thy throat with thy own sword; for
the Holy {508} Ghost is author of all the Kirks wheresoever they be dispersed
upon the face of the earth." This was the judgment of many others then
of these before expressed, of the Seat of Rome in those days, about 800
years after the ascension of Christ; and how the pride and iniquity of
that Seat augmented, as also the free speaking of men against the same,
the subsequents will declare.

What lamentable tragedy as played betwixt Hildebrand,
called Gregory the Seventh, and Henry the Fourth, Emperor of Rome,6
more historiographers than one or two do witness. Neither yet do those
writers who were most dedicated to the faction of the Pope, to wit, Gerochus,
and Paulus, so cover the shame of that deceiver, but that they give sufficient
light to men, to see what mischief lurked within the bosom of that pestilent
Seat. For writing what the said Hildebrand did, what time that he was first
deposed from that seat, which by craft and without all order he did usurp,
they say that he spared not largely to bestow the patrimony of the Kirk
upon soldiers, and upon captains of war, upon the which, the poor chiefly
should have been sustained; yea, they affirm, that he shew himself more
rigorous against the Emperor than it became a pastor to have done. If this
was their judgment who took upon them to defend his action and cause, what
think we was the judgment of others? That shall we better understand by
his accusation, and by the sentence pronounced against him by all the bishops
of France and Germany, who with one voice, concluded, that Hildebrand was
ambitious, perjured, an usurper of the Emperors authority; one that violated
and brake the concord of the Kirk; and therefore, that he was unworthy
of that seat. This sentence was pronounced in his own face, while that
he was sitting in council at Rome, by one Rulandus, chief priest of Parma,
who boldly, and without any salutation, offering the decree of the Council,
together with the Emperors letters, said, "This Hildebrand is no bishop,
no father, no pastor: he is a thief, a wolf, a murderer, a tyrant; and
therefore let him be deposed," &c.

We are not ignorant that hereof ensued great tumult, sedition,
and trouble. But as that purged nothing his former infamy, so did it not
stop the mouths of many, plainly to pronounce what judgment they had of
him and of that seat; to wit, that he, under the title of Christ, did the
very work of the Antichrist; that he sat in the Temple of God, which then
was become Babylon; that he was worshipped and extolled above all that
which was called God; that he glorified as if he could not err, &c.
These, and other crimes of {509} no less weight, were laid in that age
to the bishops and seat of Rome; and this was far without the term of three
hundred years, within the which Master Tyrie would limit the doctrine of
our Kirk. But let us hear farther.

As the practices of the bishops of Rome were more and
more espied, the bishops of Germany assembled themselves in Council at
Regensburg; where the bishop of that same country, in his most vehement
oration, made against the authors of sedition, amongst other things, pronounced
this sentence against the bishops and seat of Rome. "Christ our Saviour,
(says he), most diligently forewarned us to beware of false Christs, and
false prophets, whom he willed us to discern and know by their works, whom
presently, unless we be more blind, we may see." For (says he) Romani
flamines arma in omnes habent Christianos, audendo, fallendo, et bella
ex bellis serendo magni facti, oves trucidant, occidunt, pacem, concordiam
terris depellunt, &c. That is, "These Roman Priests (he notes the
whole rabble) make war against all Christians, sometimes malepartly [arrogantly,
presumptuously], sometimes craftily, and by deceit they still continue
war upon war; they themselves, being made great, murder and slay the sheep;
briefly, they take peace and concord from the earth." And after a little,
in the same oration, which is to be found in the seventh book of the History
foresaid, he says, Hildebrandus ante annos centum atque septuaginta,
primus specie religionis Antichristi imperii fundamenta jecit. Hoc bellum
nefandum primus auspicatus est, quod per succesores huc usque continuatur,7
&c. That is, "Hildebrand (says he), before an hundred and seventy years,
first under appearance of Religion, laid the foundation of the empire of
the Antichrist. He first began this unhappy war, which to this day is continued
by his successors." He farther proceeds and says, "Believe the man that
has experience: these priests of Babylon desire to reign alone; they shall
not cease until such time as that they have oppressed the honour of the
Roman empire: and consequently, the true pastors that would feed the flock
being oppressed, and the barking dogs being removed, they shall extinguish
the truth, they shall murder, and trod all things under their feet; they
shall sit in the temple of God, and be extolled above all that is worshipped,"
&c.

These, and many other grave sentences, were pronounced
by the said Ebirhardus, and were ratified and confirmed by the whole Bishops,
and Senate of Germany; whereby it is evident what judgment that age had
of the Bishops of Rome and their Colleges. To avoid further prolixity,
we omit the oration and judgment of Probus, the Bishop of {510} Tullos;8
the public edict set forth against the Pope and against his practices in
the days of Lodovicus the Fourth, Emperor,9
together with the judgments of many others, which such as are exercised
in reading of histories may note. So that, if Master Tyrie, or any of his
sect, shall after this accuse us, that we are the first that have disclosed
that man of sin, the most ancient writers shall convict him, and purge
us. Now shortly to the rest of his letter.

TYRIES
LETTER.

Since my departing from you, I have seen
sundry congregations, especially in Germany, professing, as they pretended,
the true word of God and his Evangel; but, in verity, betwixt them their
selves, and them and you, I find so great difference and repugnance in
matters of great consequence, that if there were no other argument to let
me not depart from the Catholic Kirk, in the which I was baptized, that
were sufficient, &c.

ANSWER.

When Master Tyrie shall accuse, in special, wherein the
congregations in Germany differ amongst themselves, and that we differ
from them, then shall we show our judgments, whether the difference be
of such importance as it ought to dissolve the unity of the Kirk. The Confession
of our Faith, and the Order of our Kirk, is patent [apparent] to all that list [desire] to
read the same; when either he, or any other, shall oppugn any one or two
heads of the same, so long as God pleases to retain in this miserable life,
such as of his mercy he has made his ministers, to blow the trumpet of
his judgments to this most wicked generation, neither he, nor any other,
that please to oppose themselves to our Confession, shall long crave an
answer; an answer we say, of any one or two heads which they please to
oppugn. For Master Tyrie ought to understand, that the preaching ministers
within the Realm of Scotland are oxen, even labouring under the yoke, and
that in the husbandry of the Lord; and therefore they can have no time
vacant from their necessary cures [charges], to compass countries
with Jesuits, (who are subject to none other yoke, than to that of their
own election [choice],) to espy what faults they can find amongst the congregations.
As we have no vacants, (we say), to consider all trifles that offend delicate
men, who {511} can acknowledge no Kirk but that which in all points be
absolute and perfect; so, albeit that both we did consider them and condemn
them, yet we usurp no authority above our brother, but remit all men to
their own judge, and do reverence all congregations, who do agree with
us in the principles of our faith, as the particular Kirks of Jesus Christ.
Albeit that in all ceremonies there be not uniformity; yea, and albeit that
in some heads of doctrine also there appear repugnance, yet will we not
break brotherly concord, providing that we agree in the principals. Principals,
we call those heads of doctrine, without the confession and consent whereof
the Kirk was not planted. By these few words Master Tyrie, (if he be wise),
may understand what we mean: and so we proceed to the conclusion of his
letter.

TYRIES
LETTER.

Wherefore, Sir, I exhort you, as I began,
to think on this matter as deeply as it becomes a Christian man; and when
ye have so done advertise me of your sentiment. In the mean time, I shall
pray Almighty God by his grace to illuminate your spirit, to know in this
matter the right way, and to give fortitude and strength, when ye have
known it, to profess it so far as shall be convenient to your estate and
salvation. Having no further occasion of writing, I commit you to the protection
of Almighty God.

Written at Paris, the sixth of December,
by your most humble servant and brother,

JAMES
TYRIE.

If ye please to answer, ye may send your writing
to the Baillie of Erroll, who will cause it to be sent to me.

ANSWER.

Against this exhortation will we object nothing; for our
earnest desire is, that men diligently consider what doctrine they embrace,
what foundation and ground their faith has, and, finally, what way they
follow, thinking thereby to attain to eternal felicity. For this careless
security, that universally may be espied in men, we damn, and ever have
damned. But this we fear not to affirm, as before we have written; that
the doctrine of the Papistical Kirk, now many years bypast, hath been altogether
corrupt; that their opinion, which they call their Catholick faith, has
no sure ground within the word of God; and that the way, which they for
the most part have followed, was the very way of perdition to all such
as without true repentance departed this life in that blindness; and much
more shall be to all persons and {512} estates that now shall maintain
those abominations, because the light is come, and has sufficiently declared
the former darkness. That man of sin is so manifestly revealed, that excuse
of ignorance there resteth none; but a fearful judgment abides all such,
that yet further will follow his damnable ways.

This, Sir, ye have our judgment, which albeit ye shall
receive later than we would, yet, the state of time being considered,
we doubt not but ye shall interpret all things to the best. Use our letter
so, we pray you, that it may come to the knowledge of the writer to you,
whose conversion we no less seek than he appears to seek yours. And thus
we heartily commit you to the protection of the Omnipotent.

Of Edinburgh, the tenth of August, Anno Do. 1568.

Footnotes:

1. The death of David Rizzio,
at Edinburgh, on the 9th of March 1565/6.

2. John Aventinus, a native
of Bavaria, and the author of several historical works. The one here mentioned
is his great work, "Annalium Boiorum Libri Septem. Excusum Ingolstadii,
1554," folio. The privilege of the Emperor Charles V. is dated Bruxellis,
pridie Idus Junii, 1554. The editor of the British Reformers remarks, "The
Jesuits have alleged that Aventinus was a Lutheran in sentiment, as they
desire to weaken the force of his testimony against the evil conduct of
the Popes, and the vicious lives of the Romish priests."

3. "Joachim, Abbot of Corazzo,
and afterwards of Florence, flourished in the twelfth century. He was revered
by the people as a saint and a prophet. He wrote some mystical commentaries
upon the Scriptures, in which he spoke of the necessity of a reformation
in the Church, and animadverted strongly upon the corrupt state in which
it then was. The comment on the Revelation has been ascribed to one of
his disciples."See Dupin, Cent. 13. (Editor of the British Reformers,
1830.)There are several editions of the "Vaticinia sive prophetiĉ
Abbatis Joachimi et Anselmi episcopi Marsicani." A life by D. Gervaise,
is entitled, "History de lAbbé Joachim, surnommé le Prophète,
avec Panalyse de ses ouvráges." Paris, 1745, 2 vols. 12mo.

4. In Aventinus, the name
is printed Tetgandus. A full account of this affair is given by Fleury,
in his Historic Ecclesiastique, Liv. 50.

6. The Emperor Henry IV.
was deposed by Gregory VII., usually called Pope Hildebrand. The account
of his treatment in the depth of winter, A.D. 1077, when the Emperor appeared
at the gates of Canossa (where the Pope then was), barefooted, etc., attended
by his wife and child, is fully described in Foxes Book of Martyrs, and
other works.